Monday, October 1, 2007

Late season surge

I started to write about the Galaxy last night when I fell asleep, er, got caught up with other activities.

The Galaxy won their third consecutive win and now has 27 points. Chicago holds the eighth playoff spot and is on 33 points. Is there enough time left in the Galaxy's season?

The Galaxy has four games left and Chicago has three and play each other on Oct. 21, the final day of the regular season. The Galaxy would need to be within a couple of points by then to have a shot and also hope that Columbus (31 points, three games left) and Colorado (29 points, three games left) don't get hot.

Can the Galaxy maintain their hot streak and get themselves into the playoffs? Or will the Galaxy miss out on the postseason for second year running?

Daily News writer Billy Witz shared with me at least one Chicago player's thoughts on the Galaxy.

Billy asked Chris Rolfe if Fire players did some scoreboard watching.

Rolfe said yeah, that they paid attention to other scores.

Billy asked him if they paid attention to the Galaxy's results.

Rolfe laughed.

6 comments:

A.C. said...

The Galaxy did this last year - got fans' hopes up by coming close, then ran out of steam. At least they look safely out of the worst-ever MLS franchise territory.

Honestly, though, I have to give the last win a lot of props. I said they needed to win against eleven to convince me, and they did. They also came from behind, won on the road and got their first ever league win at Crew Stadium. Plus, they beat the only team in MLS that has a winning record against them.

JT Soccer said...

Unlike Rolfe, I'm a bit nervous about that last match of the season at Toyota Park. The Fire could have won their last three matches (and collected an additional 6 points) but they let those matches slip away.

With the Galaxy playing for pride, Columbus & Colorade floundering, LA may in fact be the main opposition for that last spot. At this point, don't count them out.

Anonymous said...

LA has by far the easiest schedule, except for the Houston game.

Chicago may have shot themselves with that Cruz Azul friendly between the New England and DC United games.

Columbus' game versus Dallas may be their ticket in. If they don't get 3 points there, oh what a wonderful world.

Kansas City is doing everything in their power to lose their playoff ticket. They're 9 points ahead of LA. Again though, Dallas looks beatable at best.

Winning versus Houston would be LA's best option combined with some good results. 3 points back with a game in hand.

With Albright and Becks getting better though, and the team obviously getting hot at the right time, I like our chances if we get into the playoffs. Although I'm sure most of the other teams' supporters will have a stroke if LA wins it.

Anonymous said...

Yeah I can't understand how Chicago's FO could schedule a friendly with a Mexican team right in the middle of trying to secure the final playoff spot. Surely they don't plan to play any starters or 1st team players in this match.

Unknown said...

east river, looks like they're gonna be forced to play 1st teamers:

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/soccer_redcard/2007/09/cruz-azul-frien.html

Anonymous said...

You know, if Galaxy somehow makes it (and I still don't think they will), it would be downright hillarious. It really would be considering (1) what kind of squad they have, (2) how badly they'd played over this summer.

In some ways, I think the best way for the Galaxy would be up to come up just short of making the playoffs. On the one hand, they would have played well to the end. On the other hand, they would have no excuse not to upgrade their team. And with the exception of Beckham, Joe Cannon, Xavier, Randolph, and may be Gray, that squad really does need to be upgraded.